Earlier in 2015 we embarked on an ambitious animation project together with the creative gang at Iceni.co and the incredible undergraduate crew on Birmingham City University’s Visual Communication (Film and Animation) course. This collaboration was recognised this month at the Royal Television Society awards in the Best Production Skills category. The ‘Rube Goldberg’ machine was designed and built at Second Home Studios then transported an re-assembled at BCU’s Parkside studio where a team animated the machine building itself in stop-motion prior to all the kinetic trigger points being filmed live.

This award is real testament to the dedication of the student crew who sweated buckets with the rest of us to help build, manhandle and artfully destroy it!

Last year we produced My Motorbike for CITV as part of the Share A Story body of work. This month it picked up the 3rd BAFTA for Best Short Form category in the same month as winning the RTS Award for Best Production Craft Skills. Thrilled!

This month Second Home Studios won its first Royal Television Society Award for My Motorbike, produced for CITV’s Share A Story. This continues to be a creative highlight for all here at the studio, where the stories originate from eager young storytellers who are fans of the CITV channel. Not everyone who worked on the project was able to attend (as pictured) but thank you to all those lovely people who worked so hard on bringing this to life:

Since making the BAFTA nominated The Mechanical Musical Marvel, Town Hall Symphony Hall commissioned us to design a new stage set for their educational Science Of Sound showcase. We designed a portal which is used to house the screen where all the key sequences are projected. The set features all manner of Heath Robinson-style musical gizmos akin to the film’s animated title sequence. Constructed by Acquis Media.

We’re delighted to announce that the body of work for ‘Share A Story’ 2012 picked up the BAFTA for Best Children’s Short Form again last month. Our contribution to this collection of films was ‘Oh No, Where Is Zero?’ about a wayward ‘0’ who leaves his calculator home in search of stardom in a donut lookalike competition.

We’re delighted to announce that Pilsner Urquell ‘Legends’ has been given an International Award for Animation by the Sichuan TV Festival in Chengdu, China.

Founded in 1991, the biennial Sichuan TV Festival (SCTVF) is the leading international content market and awards in Asia. It is hosted by the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) and Sichuan Provincial People’s Government and organized by Sichuan Radio, Film and Television Bureau and Sichuan Radio & Television.

Throughout the twenty year History of the festival, it has encouraged the participation of media companies, associations and cultural representatives from around the world. It has become one of the most reputable TV festivals and the most effective platforms to access the most updated TV and film marketing information in China and Asia.

History of The Awards for Animation

For more than 20 years, Sichuan TV Festival has promoted itself in structure, scale, branding and social influence. The fast-growing event has developed itself into one of China’s grandest and most influential TV galas. It not only witnessed TV media’s great reform and development in China, but also made important contributions to the communication, cooperation and development of the TV industry between China and the world. As the main event of Sichuan TV Festival, while enhancing its reputation and influence both at home and abroad, International “Gold Panda” Awards for Animation encourages China’s original animation production and promotes communication between Chinese and overseas animation. The entries’ number, quality and category as well as the number of entrant territories increase year by year, gradually developing itself into a reputed international animation awards of influence, authority and credibility.

After winning a British Animation Award and being in competition at this year’s Annecy International Film Festival, we’re thrilled to add that our ‘Legends’ film has been nominated in not one, but two categories in the RTS Midlands Awards this year! It has been shortlisted in the Best Promotional Programme category and is also in the final selection for Best Production Craft Skills. This is the second time the studio has been nominated in these awards since the short film, ‘The Animal Book’ made it through back in 2007.

In other news, the film is also in competition at this year’s KLIK Animation Festival in Amsterdam in the International Commissioned Film Competition. The festival takes place between 12th and 17th November. This makes September a triple nomination month for this film. Thanks again to all the crew who worked so hard on this project enabling the film to keep on trucking round the world. Biscuits methinks…

Since winning the British Animation Award last year in the Public Choice Category, we learned this week that our ambitious paper animation for Pilsner Urquell ‘Legends’ has made the official competition selection at Annecy 2013. It’s another great testament to all involved, especially to Co-Producer Jim Turner. It will be screening amongst a selection of 22 other commissioned adverts from around the world on three occasions during the festival.

Incidentally, ‘Salle Pierre Lamy’ (name of cinema above) is the namesake of a puppet duo created by Ian Whittle, one of the Lead Animators/Trojans/Nightshift Hero’s from the Pilsner shoot. We rather like that.